Chapter 29
Not long after the five unconscious bandits were taken away, today’s breaking news swept the headlines.
[The ten-year-old only son of a local well-known group director, Gong, was kidnapped. Five members of the criminal gang were arrested, one is missing. The hostage’s whereabouts are unknown. According to the five suspects who have been arrested, they only knew the other man for one day and knew nothing about his real identity. After he took the initiative to find them and provide them with a criminal plan, the five suspects gladly agreed and took action. The last known suspect is in his early twenties, about 1.78 meters tall, and claims his code name is “K”…]
What followed was an announcement from the Yuanyang City Police Department.
[This suspect is extremely dangerous, using hostages as bait to force family members to participate in the game. We hope everyone will actively provide clues. If anyone accidentally participates in the game, please do not fall into the trap of criminals because of personal grudges and do irreversible things. The child is innocent! There are laws in the world! If there is really injustice, believe that the government will give you justice!]
Netizens who were shocked by this news were all stunned.
[…???]
[Speechless, what’s going on with Yuanyang City?]
[I was so scared that I quickly opened the app to buy train tickets and wanted to leave Yuanyang City overnight, but the tickets for the next half month were sold out??? This is outrageous.]
[This K is really 999 (100%), super awesome. Why do I feel more arrogant than the previous serial killer? I have a sense of anime super villain, where is the superhero?]
[To tell the truth, I feel that this Gong (whoever it is, we won’t name it, those who understand will understand) deserves it. Retribution for ingratitude, no wonder he was chased and blocked by villagers.][Don’t look at his good reputation outside, people in the circle know how dark this guy’s hands are. Just say one thing, Gong’s Group was Yuan’s Group ten years ago. Those who understand will understand, those who don’t understand won’t understand even if you say it, the water here is too deep, the interests involved are too big, hide, hide, doge.]
[No matter what, children are innocent. What did the little friend do wrong? Although this Gong’s character is not good, as a father, he is quite competent. If it weren’t for his own son, he probably wouldn’t be willing to publicize the game process and let others know his dark history.]
[Competent as a father??? hahaha, does the person above want to laugh me to death and inherit my bank card with a debt of 100,000?]
[Laughing to death, I bet many people don’t know that Gong has a daughter too? She is the child of his first wife. On one hand, he showers his beloved son with paternal love like a mountain, on the other hand, his legitimate daughter was kicked out to fend for herself before she even came of age.]
[……wow, I smell fresh gossip.]
[It’s not fresh, it’s an old gossip. It’s nothing more than a phoenix man marrying a rich and beautiful woman to rise to the top, kicking out his wife and daughter after getting the original company in his hands, and then suffering retribution that all his lovers couldn’t have children, until he finally had a son to carry on his lineage at the age of forty, and then treasured him.]
[Ah this……the bloody depiction above successfully made me lose interest in eating melons. This melon is hard to eat, spit!]
At the entrance of the first floor of the old city district apartment, Xia Jiajia, who was originally excited to eat melons, fell down, showing an extremely disappointed expression.
“As expected, fake melons are not delicious, let’s eat real melons.”
She moved out a big and round watermelon, showed off the watermelon knife and started to cut it, then turned her head and greeted the window on the second floor. “Bai Yi, Bai Yi! Are you coming down to eat melon? This melon is super sweet!”
The young man in a hoodie heard the sound and came down from upstairs, his messy and slightly curly hair flicked up on top of his head.
Xia Jiajia handed over a piece of cut melon, somewhat curious. “What have you been doing upstairs these past two days?”
Since the last time she successfully shared the joy of eating melons with Bai Yi, during these days of vacation, the two of them had happily formed a two-person melon-eating group. No matter who was eating melons, they would share it with the other little friend, and the relationship between upstairs and downstairs was extremely harmonious.
“What else can I do besides playing games?” Bai Yi, with dark circles under his eyes, yawned, looking like a young man addicted to the internet.
“Is it still the previous game? What game hasn’t bored you for so long……”
“Not this time, it’s a small game I designed myself. Well, I’m bored, so I’m entertaining myself~”
……
Second floor of the milk tea shop at the airport.
The little boy sitting in front of the table stared at the mobile phone screen on the table without blinking, looking eager to try.
Across from him, the young man’s fingers were clicking rapidly on the cartoon map spread out on the screen.
——This was clearly a single-player game applet. The style was very cute, but the design was very casual.
In the game, the cartoon character representing the protagonist kept jumping up and down under the chase of a group of elephants, avoiding attacks. There were long elephant trunks sweeping like sticks, water ball attacks, elephant trunks rolling up rocks to attack……the attack methods were numerous, and the directions came from all sides, making it difficult to completely avoid.
The health bar above the protagonist’s head began to drop rapidly.
Until the protagonist opened the backpack, chose gold coins, and began to attack the elephant group. The attack method was throwing gold coins. Once hit by a gold coin, each elephant would have a dizzy status icon above its head, and the chase speed would slow down. After being hit three times, it would directly faint on the spot.
The cartoon character representing the protagonist took this opportunity to escape from the chase of the elephant group, all the way to the end, and finally succeeded in breaking through.
During this process, the boy watched with great concentration, his eyes not blinking, until the end he let out a gasp of admiration.
The young man withdrew his hand. “Ding ding ding, breakthrough successful!”
He seemed to be acting as a game commentator, using a passionate voice to narrate the series of operations just now. “The protagonist Fang Fang successfully passed the first level, and continues on the treasure hunt! Let’s see what the next level is……”
[Ding ding ding, the second round of the game task has started!]
[Please arrive at Beishan Cemetery alone before 15:00 today. The specific location has been sent.]
When Gong Fang received the message from the kidnapper [K] again, the time on his mobile phone had already pointed to 14:30.
From where he was to Beishan Cemetery, it would take at least thirty minutes at normal driving speed, and now he only had half an hour left, not a minute or a second to waste.
Gong Fang didn’t say a word, and set off in a hurry.
As the largest cemetery in Yuanyang City, Gong was of course very familiar with Beishan Cemetery. But he didn’t know why [K] wanted him to come here, until he arrived at the location indicated by the coordinates deep in Beishan Cemetery and saw that standing tombstone.
And the young woman standing in front of the tombstone with her head bowed.
She was a girl in her early twenties, wearing a light blue long skirt, but she looked very capable.
She turned her head when she heard the footsteps, and the features that were revealed made Gong feel extremely familiar, and he was stunned on the spot.
After hesitating for a full five seconds, Gong recalled his daughter’s face from deep in his memory: “You are…Xiao Yao?”
He looked at the tombstone again, and it was indeed his ex-wife’s photo on it – he never knew when she had died, and where she was buried after her death.
But the young woman frowned in disgust because of his address. “Don’t call me like that! How did you come here?”
As soon as she finished asking this question, she realized it herself. Who let the news on the internet spread like wildfire?
“Oh, is it for your precious son? How could I forget, he is your lifeblood for carrying on your lineage!” Gong’s expression became a bit awkward. He forced a loving expression. “He is also your brother…”
The next moment, his mobile phone made a familiar sound.
[Long-lost reunion, is it family or enemy?]
[The person in front of you must be very familiar, right? You once moved her mother with your excellent education, moving rhetoric, and a fairly good-looking face – that gentle and innocent young lady who was about the same age as her now; thus becoming her only reliance after her father’s death, obtaining the power of Yuan’s Group, and changing its ownership within a few years.]
[When that woman lost the inheritance lawsuit and was driven out of the house by you with her sick body and young daughter, you probably didn’t think that more than ten years later, you would see her tombstone.]
[The person standing in front of you is your biological daughter by blood, and also your enemy who hates you to the bone.]
[And the clue to your heir, the precious son who will carry on your lineage, is in her hands.]
Seeing this, Gong’s expression moved, as if he finally understood what was going on. “You know K? No, your brother was kidnapped by you? Yes, it must be you.”
He excitedly took a step forward, his face full of regret. “I was wrong to your mother and daughter back then, I have regretted it over the years, and dad has always wanted to find you back. Xiao Yao, you must not go astray for revenge…”
“???” Yuan Yao was full of question marks, and snorted coldly, “Are you crazy? What does that kid being kidnapped have to do with me? If I had that ability, I would have taken action against you a long time ago!”
Fortunately, a new text message appeared on the phone at this time.
Gong lowered his head to look at the phone.
[Oh, by the way, don’t misunderstand. The clue I’m talking about is where the last round of the game is, you can get the answer from her, if she is willing to say.]
[—On her eighteenth birthday, which is also the last birthday she spent with her mother, where was it?]
[—That is the location of the last round of the game. Please arrive on time before 19:00 tonight. Otherwise, you will lose your precious son who will carry on your lineage forever.]
At the end of the message, there was a very familiar sentence.
[Forgiveness or judgment, I look forward to this answer.]
Looking at the changing expression on Gong’s face, Yuan Yao seemed to guess something, and a mocking smile appeared on her face. “It seems that it is indeed a game proposed by the kidnapper, I won’t be the key to whether you can pass the level, right?”
Gong’s awkward and ugly face confirmed everything.
This made her laugh out loud in front of her mother’s grave, very freely. “So, surnamed Gong, you have your day too!”
“Xiao Yao, I know I owe you and your mother, dad will definitely compensate you in the future, you can take revenge in any way you want. But your brother is innocent, he didn’t do anything wrong to you. He’s still so young, you can’t just watch your brother die…”
“Enough, first tell me what you want me to do?”
“Eighteen, where did you spend your eighteenth birthday?” Seeing Yuan Yao’s loosening tone, Gong immediately seized the opportunity and asked this question urgently.
With the time limit of arriving before seven o’clock, and not knowing how far it was from here, he dared not waste a single moment.
But this sentence was like touching a fish scale, making Yuan Yao’s loosened face quickly darken, and directly froze.
Her voice was as cold as ice. “At that time, my mother was already very sick, she didn’t want to continue to stay in the hospital and waste money, she took me to the place that meant the most to her in this life…”
While speaking, she silently observed Gong’s face, but found that he seemed to be completely unable to remember what the “most meaningful place” was, so she snorted and stopped talking.
Gong was listening attentively, but found that the key point was suddenly missing, which was tens of thousands of times more anxious than facing the author’s broken chapter. “Where is it exactly?”
Yuan Yao suddenly stepped aside, pointed at the silently standing tombstone, and put forward a condition. “First, kowtow a hundred times to my mother, sincerely, this is what you owe her.”
“What did you say?” Gong’s face was incredulous.
But Yuan Yao was unmoved. “After you finish, I will tell you the answer. Whenever you finish, I will tell you.”
“—Don’t you want to see your son sooner? For such a small degree, you are not willing to do it for your son? In the future, never say that you are a good father.”
Her sarcastic remarks made Gong’s face turn red with anger. “Fine! Fine! You’re very good! I’ll kowtow—”
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
The sound of kowtowing echoed in the cemetery, sounding a bit scary, but Yuan Yao hummed a cheerful tune in her heart.
She looked at the man in front of her who had become an enemy, and after the pleasure of revenge dissipated, what surged in her heart was a heavy sadness. “Since you have finished kowtowing, then I will tell you–the place we went to that year was the Xingfu Orphanage.”
Gong’s face changed slightly.
“That was the orphanage that my grandfather started funding from the year my mother was born, and my mother would go to the orphanage every year until you drove us out of the house. That year, she accidentally saw a man volunteering there, thought he was diligent and kind, so when this man pursued her high-profile in school, she agreed so quickly.”
“Reality proves that what you see may not necessarily be true.”
“She took me there not for a certain man, but for the last time to say goodbye to those little friends who regarded her as an angel. She didn’t want my heart to be filled with only hatred, she wanted me to see more meaning in life, and pass on the happiness she got after helping others to me.”
“Unfortunately, two years later, the Xingfu Orphanage unexpectedly caught fire and was burned to ruins.”
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